Alton Brown's No-Slip Tong Trick Every Home Cook Should Know

Tongs are quite useful in the kitchen. They serve as an extension of our hands when we are not able to directly handle food items. However, they can also be a safety hazard, especially when handling slippery and hot objects. A fan emailed Alton Brown about an unfortunate experience she had while making crème brûlée with ramekins. One vessel fell as she was extracting it from the oven using tongs, and the gooey custard splashed on her feet, leaving her with burns. Responding to the fan, the food scientist shared in a Facebook post his no-slick hack for metal tongs.

According to Brown, who has a baking hack for making the fudgiest brownies, a simple but effective way to make the tongs have a better grip is by putting some rubber bands around the gripping ends of the kitchen utensil. "It makes a very nice, snug, and secure device," he says in the video while showing his followers how he wrapped his tongs with rubber bands he got from the grocery store. He then demonstrates how effective it is by lifting ramekins easily from a hot water bath in an oven. "That will hopefully keep bad things from happening during [a] hot water bake," he quips at the end of the clip.

The secret to Alton Brown's genius no-slip tong hack is friction. Since bare metal is slick, especially when wet, grabbing hot items with it can be challenging and dangerous. By adding rubber bands to the pincers or hands of the metal utensil, you are also adding texture to them, providing them with enough grip to hold onto slippery objects. Because rubber bands are highly elastic, they mold slightly to the object when you're picking them up, giving you a stable hold through and through. This explains why the "Good Eats" host recommends the stretchy rubber for this hack.

Aside from extracting ramekins from hot water baths, Brown also suggests using his technique when pulling hot jars out of a pressure cooker after canning them. Despite being one of the most underappreciated utensils in the kitchen, metal tongs have many uses, so whenever you are dealing with slippery food items, just grab some rubber bands and you're good to go. You can use this tip when steaming dumplings on stainless steel trays, handling hot corn on the cob, or retrieving hard-boiled eggs from a pot. If you have silicone-tipped tongs, that will also do. But, do note that metal tongs are more durable and handle high heat better.